In order to get into the discussion of Florida wind power, the individual needs to understand the history and technology of wind energy. We will provide a bit of background and then try to explain why Florida wind power is falling behind many other states. Currently, Florida ranks 47th among U.S. States in the generation of electric energy.

Wind power is the converting of wind energy into a useful form, i.e. electrical energy, by the use of wind generators. At the end of 2008, worldwide production by wind-powered generators was 120.8 gigawatts.

Wind energy has historically been used to propel sailing ships or transformed into mechanical energy for moving water or grinding grain, but the principal use of wind power today is the production of electrical energy. Large scale wind turbine farms are typically fed directly to the local electric power grid, with lower capacity wind generators providing power to the most rural areas. Electric providers increasingly reimburse customer for surplus electrical energy generated by the lower capacity home size turbines. Generated wind energy as a power source is a favorite of many environmentalists as a viable alternative to fossil fuels, as it is everywhere, renewable, widely distributed, non-toxic, and produces lower greenhouse emissions, although the construction of wind generating collectives is not universally applauded due to their impact on the landscape and other effects on the environment. The inconsistency of wind doesn't create difficulties when using wind generators to supply a low percentage of total demand. When wind is to be used for a larger percentage of consumer demand, higher costs for compensation of inconsistency are thought to be reasonable.

In recent years, America has added more wind generated capacity to its grid than any other country; U.S. wind power capacity increased by 45% to 16.8 gigawatts in 2007 and overtaking Germany's overall production in 2008. California was one of the incubators of the new age wind power industry, and led America in wind energy production for many years; by the end of 2006, however, Texas became the leading wind power state and today continues to build its advantage. By the end of 2008, Texas had 7,116 MW capacity installed, which would have ranked it sixth worldwide if Texas were a separate nation.

Unfortunately, the state of Florida has not kept pace with these impressive gains. The top resources in the industry agree that Florida wind power is not economically feasible due to the inconsistent wind conditions. The one site that is under construction is admittedly a political gambit and most knowledgeable experts agree that the best conditions available in Florida would not be considered as viable sites in any state that has wind energy production fields. On the positive side, this doesn't mean that homeowners cannot incorporate wind power into a system to reduce dependence on commercially generated electricity.

Note: The total quantity of economically extractable energy available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources. An estimated 72 terawatts of wind energy on the Earth potentially can be commercially viable, compared to about 15 terawatts normal world energy consumed from all sources in 2005. These numbers are in spite of the fact that not all the energy of the wind flowing past any given point can be retrieved.

It should be noted that there are diy guides available that allow almost anyone to construct a high quality wind generator with locally available parts at a very reasonable cost. http://diyenergy.newagelinx.com/review.html